NYU Public Affairs Blogtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1077813540250969732013-09-20T18:42:46-04:00TypePadIn Response: The FASP Letter of Sept. 19, 2013tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c019aff82fa7c970b2013-09-20T18:42:46-04:002013-09-20T18:42:46-04:00Yesterday FASP sent out another note to the community containing many of their familiar attacks on NYU’s direction. It ended with this comment: “We conclude by adding that we represent the faculty, not only as opponents of the Sexton Plan per se, but----far more important----as professors, bound always by our...NYU Public Affairs

Yesterday FASP sent out another note to the community containing many of their familiar attacks on NYU’s direction. It ended with this comment:

“We conclude by adding that we represent the faculty, not only as opponents of the Sexton Plan per se, but----far more important----as professors, bound always by our ethical duty, and our intellectual responsibility, to distinguish fact from error, truth from lie.”

--FASP Letter of Sept 19, 2013

A worthy mission, to be sure.

So, it seems only fitting to point out that many of their core assertions contain errors of fact and conflation of issues.

On Loans

FASP claims that the University loan program favors the University administrators and drains the budget. Here’s a key problem with what they imply: the loan program does not cost the University. In fact it earns NYU a small return.

That said, earning a return is not the point of the loan program; the point of NYU’s loan program is to recruit and retain faculty -- and to a far smaller degree, senior administrators – as part of an overall package of compensation and benefits, just as other major research universities offer loans. And if one is to judge by NYU’s direction in major rankings, it has been very successful.

Yes, some of the loans are forgivable and some loans are no-interest loans (in each case, these loans are used for recruitment or retention), but the majority are interest-bearing loans, and because of that, each year the University earns a return. To state the case simply:

About $15 million of the loan portfolio is forgivable.

However, the remainder of the portfolio generates in excess of $38 million of interest earnings over the next thirty years – more than enough to cover the forgiven loan amounts and still generate a positive return.

And this calculation does not even take account of the “shared appreciation” feature built in to many of the loans, which may yield even more of a return.

Regardless of what FASP wishes to imply, the loan portfolio represents no drain on the University’s resources and in fact generates a return.

And how do the loans break out faculty and administration? Out of 181 borrowers between Jan. 1, 2000 and Jan. 1, 2013:

175 faculty borrowers, with loans totaling $88.7 million (including 14 loans to faculty who at some point have held administrative appointments)

Six admin borrowers, with loans totaling $2.6 million

Oh, and the discrepancy between the number the FASP letter cites and the number Martin Dorph cites in the letter he sent to the NYU community during spring 2013? It’s an apples-and-oranges comparison: the difference between a snapshot in time and a 12-year period of time, and the difference between the number of borrowers and the cumulative number of loans over a 12-year period.

And let’s be clear: giving loans to recruit and retain faculty is not only not illegal, it is commonly practiced in higher education.

On Salaries

The FASP letter makes use of the data in NYU’s annual public tax filings -- called 990 Forms – to cast administrative overhead as exorbitant.

Yet here again, there’s a serious problem in FASP’s approach: of the approximately $24 million in salaries they cite, over $16 million – or 2/3 – are paid by the medical center, which operates separately from the University and faces markets in which the salary structure is higher. These are funds that have nothing to do with Washington Square’s financial aid or faculty salaries at Washington Square; they are lumped together for the point of exaggeration.

Also, it’s worth taking a look at the big picture, because the FASP letter gives a distorted picture: between 2002 and 2012, the portion of NYU’s budget spent on administrative, auxiliary, and institutional services went down – from 30% of the budget to 23% -- while the portion spent on instruction, research, and libraries increased from 56% to 58%.

And, as to the suggestion that NYU is improperly failing to disclose names and salaries: it is the IRS that instructs NYU whose salary should be listed on its 990 Form based on their rank as officers of the University. It is not meant to be a list of all those in whose salaries FASP is interested.

On Space

Again, I have to address the sweeping claims, in this case relating to the faculty opposition to the University Space Plan:

Over 40% of the departmental resolutions expressed concern, not opposition

39 departments or schools voted out of 170+ departments University-wide

922 faculty voted on the resolutions; there are over 4,000 full-time faculty at NYU.

Still, there is no doubt that the space plan was, at the least, a source of concern for a significant number of faculty. That is why the University Space Priorities Working Group was established: to respond to faculty concerns, to provide an opportunity for the decision-making that went into the plan to be examined by a group of faculty thoroughly, at length, and transparently, and to provide guidance on how to proceed.

A very large portion of the FASP letter is devoted, essentially, to the gleeful attack on Martin Lipton, the chair of NYU’s Board of Trustees.

Let’s see – he’s remained involved with NYU for about 60 years as student, alumnus, adjunct faculty member, and trustee; he’s devoted countless hours to the University; during his chairmanship of the Board, NYU has raised over $5 billion; in spring 2013, he and a special committee of the Board met directly with many groups of NYU stakeholders, including several groups which independently were opposed to the space plan, John Sexton’s leadership, or both; and the special committee has offered new mechanisms for faculty participation in University decision-making.

FASP bitterly rejects the efforts of the special committee of the Board that Mr. Lipton set up to offer new mechanisms for faculty participation in University decision-making. It’s worth noting those changes and asking oneself if Mr. Lipton and the others on the Board are really as dismissive as FASP suggests:

The creation of a new Joint Committee to provide for direct communication, collaboration, and discussion between Trustees, faculty selected from within their schools, and student and Administrative Management Council leadership

A commitment to include faculty and student representation in upcoming searches for president

A Commitment that faculty will democratically choose at least half the membership of University-wide committees.

A commitment to work with the University Senate to create a way for non-tenure track faculty can have a voice in university governance.

A University needs people of Mr. Lipton’s commitment to grow and function. We can be certain that NYU will not be able to continue on its current trajectory if people who are willing to donate their time and money, and who believe in the University and its mission, can routinely expect the extreme, vitriolic, and dismissive treatment that FASP directs as those with whom it disagrees, imputing to them the basest of motives.

There are clearly faculty who disagree with the direction of the University; some feel very strongly indeed. An exchange of opinions and ideas on that topic is healthy and constructive. But there is a point at which rhetoric just scorches the earth. This past summer, in an earlier missive from FASP, they belittled NYU’s academics, its students, and its progress. There were claims in that missive that were verifiably untrue, and refuted by Provost David McLaughlin in a letter of response to faculty.

NYU thrives on the energy of its community, and that often includes disagreements. But I would suggest that, particularly in a university, we must all stick to the facts and hold to basic norms of civility.

--John Beckman

Foreign Exchangetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c019aff74715d970d2013-09-17T15:05:15-04:002013-09-19T13:53:19-04:00Can the liberal arts thrive in countries with more restrictive civil liberties than we have in the US? Can a university deliver a liberal arts education, with its distinctive values of free inquiry and critical thinking, in such countries without sacrificing its integrity? Those were the questions posed by Jim...NYU Public Affairs

Can the liberal arts thrive in countries with more restrictive civil liberties than we have in the US? Can a university deliver a liberal arts education, with its distinctive values of free inquiry and critical thinking, in such countries without sacrificing its integrity?

At NYU, we believe the clear answer is yes. We base it on several factors: the fact we and our partners committed to academic freedom as an explicit pre-condition to moving ahead with the development of our campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai; our choice of prominent US academics to run these campuses and ensure that free inquiry would be preserved; the actual, on-the-ground experience of our faculty; and our belief that a liberal arts education is not a hothouse flower, fragile and vulnerable, but a hardier species that can thrive in different climates and have an important impact on students even when pursued in societies unlike those in the west.

Al Bloom, the Vice Chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi and the former president of Swarthmore College, and Jeffrey Lehman, the Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai and the former president of Cornell University, probably said it best in their letter to the Times in response to the Sleeper's piece:

To the Editor:

We disagree with Jim Sleeper in both theory and reality. The fundamental mission of a liberal arts education is to lead students to build the capacity and readiness to critically analyze issues, assumptions and values. Through this educational approach students develop their own sense of what is significant for themselves, their societies and the world to achieve.
Contrary to Mr. Sleeper’s claims, what we are proving in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai is how powerful a liberal arts education is in developing these habits of mind across differing political, social and cultural environments.
America’s own promise of freedom has become more real for all citizens over the past 50 years, thanks in good part to a liberal arts education.

And we are confident that a liberal arts education has the potential to produce citizenship and leadership for a more inclusive, cooperative and peaceful planet.

It is puzzling to us that people who claim to believe in the effectiveness of a liberal arts education should have so little faith in its adaptability and strength.

Faculty members from NYU Abu Dhabi also weighed in. Here's a letter that Professor Cyrus Patel submitted to the Times and shared with us:

Mr. Sleeper writes, “At its best, a liberal education imbues future citizen-leaders with the values and skills that are necessary to question, not merely serve, concentrations of power and profit.” It is precisely those values and skills that we inculcate in our students at NYU Abu Dhabi, without any restrictions. Rachel Aviv notes in her profile of NYU’s president, John Sexton, in this week’s New Yorker that “none of the professors or students I talked to said that they felt restrictions on what they could study.” One of our students was awarded a Truman Scholarship on the basis of a policy proposal that develops a framework for providing institutional support for communities of international migrant workers. NYU Abu Dhabi insists that good working conditions and benefits are the rule on the construction site of its future campus, a fact recognized by the Middle East director of Human Rights Watch in Ms. Aviv’s article.

And here's one from Matthew Silverstein, an assistant professor of philosophy:

To the Editor:

Jim Sleeper argues that educators are “defining down their expectations of what a liberal education means” when they open campuses in authoritarian nations (Liberal Education in Authoritarian Places, September 1). This does not align with my experience at NYU Abu Dhabi. Having studied and taught philosophy at Amherst College, I am familiar with what a traditional liberal arts education looks like from both sides of the seminar table, and I have no doubt that NYUAD students are receiving an outstanding and genuinely liberal education. There are no viewpoints, theories, ideas, arguments, or authors excluded from our classrooms.

If anything, NYUAD students are receiving an even broader education than is typically found in the US. Despite the diversity found at many top liberal arts colleges, there remains a strong American center of gravity. At NYUAD there is no center of gravity – no default position or orientation – in either our student body or our curriculum. It’s hard to imagine a better environment in which to teach students to question their most basic assumptions and commitments.

An NYU faculty member who was involved in curriculum development for NYU Abu Dhabi told me a story that has stuck with me because of the way it distilled the essence of a liberal arts education. He grew up and went to school in the Near East, transferring to an American school for high school. In response to a point made by a classmate during a discussion, the teacher turned to him and asked, “what do you think about that?” It was the first time a teacher of any sort had posed such a question to him. It was why, decades later, he was optimistic about the possibilities of NYU Abu Dhabi.

Do we really believe that kind of interaction should only be confined to only certain parts of the globe?

--John Beckman

NYU’s New Events Calendartag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c0192acc8c486970d2013-08-27T11:17:59-04:002013-08-27T11:17:59-04:00Like the city around us, NYU has never lacked activities. Each week, the university provides scores (if not hundreds) of events ranging from guest lectures to art exhibits, live performances to charitable service—as well as conferences, symposia, and dance parties. What we have lacked is a calendar that was up-to-snuff...NYU Public Affairs

Like the city around us, NYU has never lacked activities. Each week, the university provides scores (if not hundreds) of events ranging from guest lectures to art exhibits, live performances to charitable service—as well as conferences, symposia, and dance parties.

What we have lacked is a calendar that was up-to-snuff and people wanted to use. But that has changed.

We recently upgraded the NYU Events Calendar so that faculty, students, administrators, and staff can now turn to a single source to quickly search and browse events on a website that's far easier to navigate, and schools and offices can more readily display events from the calendar on their website.

The new NYU Events Calendar

We invite you to search and browse through the new NYU Events Calendar and see for yourself the rich array of programming.

“Law & Order: NYU” or “CSI: NYU”?tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c01901ef763ed970b2013-08-23T10:46:02-04:002013-08-23T10:46:26-04:00Bones found near the Washington Mews appear to be the remains of an equine toe. Viewers of the now-defunct television series “Law & Order” are undoubtedly familiar with the show’s mythical “Hudson University.” The institution offered a seemingly endless supply of victims, suspects, and witnesses—but, if memory serves, never any...NYU Public Affairs

Bones found near the Washington Mews appear to be the remains of an equine toe.

Viewers of the now-defunct television series “Law & Order” are undoubtedly familiar with the show’s mythical “Hudson University.” The institution offered a seemingly endless supply of victims, suspects, and witnesses—but, if memory serves, never any forensics experts.

That changed—in the real world, at least—earlier this week at NYU.

Office of Public Affairs, W. 4th Street, 2:25 p.m.*A call comes in from NYU’s facilities management team—Con-Ed has been digging under the street on University Place, just outside the Silver School of Social Work. The workers have found some bones—they could be human or from a large animal. NYPD is on the scene.

University Place at Waverly, 2:41 p.m.
A handful of NYPD officers are gathered. Con-Ed employees mill about—perplexed, but in good humor, filling the air with Jimmy Hoffa jokes. Meanwhile, anthropologists at New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner contact an NYU colleague--anthropologist Susan Antón--to collect the remains.

University Place at Waverly, 2:47 p.m.NYU Office of Public Safety’s leadership and NYPD 6th precinct chiefs arrive. The mystery: Are the bones human, which would necessitate an investigation, or animal, which would bring a rapid close to the case.

University Place at Waverly, 2:50 p.m. Antón and Williams arrive to what is now a large gathering of onlookers to examine and bag the remains.

NYU faculty were called in to collect the remains.

Their immediate assessment: it’s a horse, of course, pointing to what they identify as parts of a leg among the bones.

Antón and Williams’ conclusion is bolstered by an onlooker’s recollection of the history of Washington Mews—situated a few yards from the discovery: many of its buildings served as small-scale horse stables for nearby townhouses.

*Times of the aforementioned occurrences are to the best of the author’s recollection.

NYU Exhibits the Dramatic Murals of Painter and NYU Professor Hale Woodrufftag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c0192ac6b4566970d2013-08-07T14:18:50-04:002013-09-25T14:12:20-04:00The Underground Railroad The arts have been a strong suit of NYU from its beginning. Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph and early version of the telegraphic alphabet that would come to bear his name, was appointed a professor of painting and sculpture at NYU – one of the first...NYU Public Affairs

The Underground Railroad

The arts have been a strong suit of NYU from its beginning. Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph and early version of the telegraphic alphabet that would come to bear his name, was appointed a professor of painting and sculpture at NYU – one of the first faculty appointments at NYU.

Now the work of another arts professor—Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), an African-American painter and muralist who was a faculty member at NYU from 1946 to 1968 at the school that evolved into the present day Steinhardt and who was a major figure in New York City’s artistic community in the years after World War II—is being exhibited at NYU’s 80WSE Galleries on the east side of Washington Square Park. The exhibition is sponsored by the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and NYU’s Faculty Resource Network.

Prior to coming to New York, Woodruff was commissioned by Talladega College, a small black college in Alabama, to paint a series of murals illustrating important moments in black American history.

Woodruff painted six murals: huge, colorful, and bold, they dramatically depict the story of the Amistad (the slave ship Africans mutinied to gain their freedom), the underground railroad, and the founding of Talladega College by freed slaves.

The Mutiny on the Amistad

Woodruff was at heart an educator, and he viewed the murals as an effort to teach students at Talladega—and anyone else who viewed them—not only about important episodes in American history, but also that black men and women could be strong and heroic figures. Living and working in the segregated South, Woodruff painted the Africans on the Amistad and the freed slaves who built Talladega College as strong, confident, and intelligent men and women.

Several years after completing the Talladega murals, Woodruff moved to New York to begin teaching at NYU. In 1967, the year before he retired, he was honored with NYU’s Great Teacher Award, and the University sponsored a retrospective of his artwork.

He also immersed himself in the city’s artistic world. He joined a short-lived salon, called “Studio 35,” with artists that included Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning (Woodruff was the only black artist in the group). Later, he created an artists’ collective called “Spiral” that sponsored discussions about African-American art and the civil rights movement.

Opening Day at Talladega College

So it was only fitting that when Talladega College (which is also a participant in NYU’s Faculty Resource Network) decided to restore the Woodruff murals and send them on a national tour, they would be exhibited at NYU.

“Hale Woodruff played a leading role in one of the most important undertakings in African-American, and by extension, American art in the 20th century,” said Debra Spencer, an NYU art consultant on the exhibit. “Through his murals, he introduced powerful narratives from black history that empowered generations of black Americans and challenged white Americans about how they understood the history of the United States.”

The Woodruff exhibition runs through Oct. 13, 2013. The 80 WSE Galleries, located at 80 Washington Square East, are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

--Philip Lentz

Setting the Record Straighttag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c019104979e4b970c2013-08-05T16:27:23-04:002013-08-05T16:27:23-04:00Last week, Provost David McLaughlin responded to a letter from the Faculty Against the Sexton Plan that had many negative things to say about NYU. That response – an email to faculty – provided a straightforward yet compelling set of metrics about NYU’s academic improvement over the last 10 years....NYU Public Affairs

Last week, Provost David McLaughlin responded to a letter from the Faculty Against the Sexton Plan that had many negative things to say about NYU.

That response – an email to faculty – provided a straightforward yet compelling set of metrics about NYU’s academic improvement over the last 10 years. Understanding that momentum – the improvement in the quality of NYU’s faculty, students, scholarship, undergraduate experience, facilities, and stature that has transformed NYU over the last three decades – is the key to understanding NYU.

That upward trajectory is continuing, so I thought you might want to see what he wrote. It’s powerful.

--John Beckman

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

Over the course of the past few months, and again in a widely circulated letter the week before last, the Faculty Against the Sexton Plan (FASP) has made assertions that deny or ignore NYU's progress over the past decade.

I have been a faculty member at NYU for 19 years; to me, the academic improvement over that time - most notably the steadily improving quality of the faculty and the students we recruit - has been quite clear; I believe colleagues who have been here for similar or even longer tenures feel the same way. This academic momentum has continued, and even accelerated, over the past 10 years, accompanied by a marked rise in NYU's academic standing; and it is a testament to the hard work of NYU's faculty.

I respect the right of everyone in our community to debate the future of the University. However, to paraphrase Daniel Patrick Moynihan: everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions, but not to his or her own facts. Moreover, it is particularly troublesome when factual misrepresentations diminish our University's accomplishments, which not only devalues what our community is widely recognized as having accomplished but also jeopardizes our ability to continue our progress. And so, as Provost, I feel compelled to share with you just a sample of the data and facts that illustrate the positive direction of NYU's academic trajectory. I have chosen specifically data and facts that the FASP got wrong.

Sincerely,
David McLaughlin
Provost

"The president's pursuit of endless growth has hurt NYU academically. As we told you on April 21, NYU's acceptance rate is now over 34%---six times higher than Harvard's (5.9%), five times higher than Columbia's (6.9%), and double that of Mississippi Valley State University (16.1%)." (FASP)

NYU's admit rate has remained stable over the last decade: NYU's admit rate was 32% in 2002 and 35% in 2012i; our estimates are that it will be 33% in 2013. Over the same period, our average SAT scores rose: from 1300 in 2002 to 1340 in 2012ii. The number of students who achieved 1,500 on their SATs nearly doubled over that same periodiii. And there has been a 45% increase in undergraduate applications over the last decadeiv; well over 40,000 students per year now apply for undergraduate admission.v

We have also significantly enhanced student diversity in several areas: 19% of the freshman entering in 2012 were underrepresented minorities, up from 11% in 2002vi; 23% of the freshmen entering in 2012 were Pell-eligible, vs. 19% in 2002vii (you may have seen the Pell chart in the NY Times this morning; this data, likewise drawn from the Dept. of Education, would place us very well compared to other institutions); and 15% of the freshmen entering 2012 were international students, vs. 4% in 2002vii.

This is a significant achievement given the increase in the size of the freshman class between 2002 and 2012, which grew by approximately 2.5% / yearix (less than half the rate of growth of the prior decade), reflecting the growth in undergraduate programs (26 new bachelor degree programs were approved by NYS during that periodx; in the College of Arts and Science alone, majors increased from 35 to 47xi) and capacity (participation in our global programs nearly doubled during this periodxii). Normally this would correspond with a significant decrease in selectivity, a significant increase in the admit rate, and a significant decline in the SAT score.

But, in fact, that did not happen. Our ability to hold our admit rate steady and see improvements in the academic qualifications of our students even as we grew is, in fact, part of NYU's remarkable success story.

And the preliminary admissions data from our campus in Abu Dhabi - where we are able to offer financial aid comparable to the most financially well-endowed universities in the world - though not included in the data above, are highly impressive: the projected acceptance rate for NYU students admitted there is 4.7%, and the average SAT score is 1500xiii. The yield on the offers of admission made this year was 88%, with many students turning down opportunities at the world's leading universities to attend.

"[A faculty member in (History)] noted a perceptible decline in the scholastic aptitude of our undergraduates since 2007: "The students here are no better prepared than those at the University of Maryland," where she taught before she came to NYU (and whose acceptance rate is 45%)." (FASP)

As noted above, the avg. SAT scores of entering freshman has increased over the past 10 years, and the number of entering freshmen with SAT scores 1500 or great has nearly doubled. The percentage of entering freshman in the top 10% of their class rose from 62% to 64% between 2002 and 2012xiv, and the high school GPAs of entering freshman held steady - at 3.6xv.

Moreover, NYU has made impressive strides in 6-year graduation rate: for freshmen who entered NYU in 1996, the graduation rate was 78%; for those who entered in 2006 (the class for which we have the most recent data), the graduation rate had climbed to 85%xvi.

"Under Pres. Sexton, the number of NYU's untenured faculty has grown 216%, so that they now outnumber tenured faculty... With some 2,400 students paying full tuition every year, Liberal Studies makes well over $100 million a year; and yet its 80 full-time faculty can barely live on what they're paid, although required to teach three courses per semester, do administrative work, and---somehow---publish." (FASP)

At a time when many colleges and universities have come under fire for reductions in their tenured, tenure-track, and other full-time faculty, NYU has increased those ranksxvii.

Moreover, the mean salary for NYU full professors and assistant professors was for 2011-12 was in the top 1% nationally, and for NYU associate professors was in the top 3% nationallyxviii.

We have, apart from these figures, already hired 49xix tenured and tenure-track faculty for NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai (eight of whom are under tenure review and four of whom are joint appointments with NYU's New York campus), and in the coming years expect to hire hundreds of additional tenured and tenure-track faculty.

* Growth in full-time non-tenure-track faculty is a result of school-based hiring, in large measure reflecting the hiring of Arts Professors at Tisch; Music Professors at Steinhardt; faculty to replace the graduate student teaching assistantships eliminated by Financial Aid Reform 4 (FAR4), faculty fellows, and Global Professors in FAS; an increase in clinical instructors in the College of Dentistry; and the decision by various schools to use full-time faculty in place of adjunct faculty.

"NYU's endless growth has also curbed the faculty as teachers and as scholars. Contrary to the official numbers, our average class size is comparable to large state universities; and 30% (editor's note: corrected from 70% as first published) of all that teaching is assigned to full-time contract faculty, with a further quotient handled by an army of over 5,000 adjuncts and 1,000 graduate instructors (part-timers comprising 40% of the faculty at large)." (FASP)

In fact, the student/faculty ratio has improved from 11:1 in 2002 to 10:1 in 2012xx. The percentage of undergraduate classes with less than 20 students has remained 63% over the last decade in spite of the increase in the student body, and the number of class sections with 50 or more students has declined over the last decade: from 10% of classes to 9%xxi.

"Thus NYU, by now, is not renowned as "a world-class residential research university," as you put it in your letter to the Times. For one thing, that accolade, while passable PR, is undeserved, at least by the rough standard of journalistic ratings: U.S. News & World Report ranks NYU 32nd (and Columbia 4th) among the top 200 US universities---which is precisely where NYU was in 2002.

Once the leading US graduate program in art history, the Institute of Fine Arts has dropped to #6, while Stern---ranked #10 (in the US) by U.S. News, and #19 (worldwide) by the Financial Times---has also variously slipped since 2002; and, strikingly, NYU Law has dropped from #4 to #6 in U.S. News, for all those dollars so embarrassingly lavished on its millionaires." (FASP)

Below please find some information showing NYU's improvements in rankings, and other information related to its national and international standing.

US News and World Report
Best Colleges and Universities / National Universities

2002

2013

35

32

US News and World Report
Graduate School Rankings / Professional Schools

2002

2013

Business

12

10

Education

20

17

Engineering

N/A

57

Law

5

6

Medicine

24

21

Nursing

21 (2011)

21

Public Affairs (Wagner)

19

6

Social Work

35

16 (2012)

US News and World Report
Graduate School Rankings / Ph.D. Programs / Humanities and Soc. Sciences

2002

2013

Economics

19

11

English

25

20

History

24

18

Politics

Not ranked in top 25

15

Psychology

30

30

Sociology

22

16

US News and World Report
Graduate School Rankings / Ph.D. Programs / The Sciences

Times Higher Ed (THE) World University Rankings

Center for World University Rankings (CWUR)

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities

2003

2012

55

27

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings*

2004

2012

World Ranking

79

43

US Ranking

30

19

* The QS rankings were originally published in collaboration with The Times Higher Education from 2004 - 2009 as the Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings. In 2010, the collaboration ended; QS continued to publish using the existing methodology, with THE created a new methodology (above) with Thompson Reuters

The National Research Council (NRC)
Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States (2010)
NYU's Programs with Ranges within Top 15 (A total of 27 programs vs. a total of 7 programs in the 1995 NRC Assessment)

went from #36 nationally to #24 nationally (its highest ranking since 1990) among schools of medicine in terms of NIH awards, with a 73% increase in NIH funding. In fact, over the past three years, it had the largest increase in NIH funding of any of the top 40 medical schools

saw an increase in publications of 32%

Received the largest grant in its history - an $84 million NIH grant related to heart disease

Launched the Curriculum for the 21st Century, the first significant change in US medical education in decades

Introduced a three-year pathway to a medical degree, making the NYU School of Medicine the first medical school in the country to allow accelerated entry into any specialty

Developed the Web Initiative for Surgical Education, now used by more than 100 medical schools

Has been named to the US News and World Report Honor Roll three times (incl. 2013); it had not previously been named to the Honor Roll since the mid-1990s

Twice received the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission; received a "Magnet" designation for nursing quality; received an "A" for patient safety from the LeapFrog Group; and was awarded five stars for "overall performance" from the University HealthSystem Consortium, as well as being only one of 10 hospitals to receive the UHC Quality Leadership Award

Hired 70 new tenured and tenure-track faculty members, and created three new academic departments, increasing the number to 29

Was the first of the hospitals on Manhattan's east side damaged by Hurricane Sandy to re-open and resume operations

Opened the National Cancer Institute-designated Clinical Cancer Center; the Smilow Research Center; the Translational Research Building; and the Hassenfeld Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and the Fink Children's Ambulatory Care Center.

Technology Transferxxiii: Between 2001 and 2012:

NYU's licensing revenue increased 12-fold, with NYU being named #1 among US universities in licensing revenue over the past six years

475 patents were granted

Dentistry / Nursingxxiv: In addition to the construction of a new building at 433 1st Avenue that will provide a new home for the College of Nursing, additional research space for the College of Dentistry, and provide space for a new bio-engineering program...

Nursing: Since its establishment as a college in the College of Dentistry in 2005, the College of Nursing has:

Seen its grant funding grow from $3.3 million in 2006 to $13.1 million in 2012

Seen it rank in NIH funding among nursing schools increase from #46 in 2006 to #5 in 2012

Dentistry: The College of Dentistry has:

Seen its ranking of NIH funding among US dental schools rise from 16th in 2002 to 13th in 2012

Seen its research expenditures increase from $4.5 million in 2002 to $15.9 million in 2012

Seen the first-time pass rate on the National Board Dental Examination Part I increase from 80.7% in 2002 to 99.6% in 2012 (above the national average), and on Part II from 85.5% in 2002 to 99.4% in 2012 (above the national average)

Applications for admission increased 160% between 2002 and 2012, the average GPA of enrollees increased from 3.24 to 3.54, and the average DAT score increased from 18.5 to 20.9

When Arab Spring Becomes All Out War: Tisch Photography Exhibit Explores the Human Cost of Unrest in Syriatag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c019104661094970c2013-07-25T10:27:14-04:002013-07-25T10:27:14-04:00The sleepy summer term tableau of in the main TSOA Building foyer contrasts sharply with the hustle and bustle of regular term-time. All the more reason to venture through the lobby, behind the elevators, to take in Bridget Auger’s powerful photo and text exhibit, “This is Not Me: Enduring Syria’s...NYU Public Affairs

The sleepy summer term tableau of in the main TSOA Building foyer contrasts sharply with the hustle and bustle of regular term-time. All the more reason to venture through the lobby, behind the elevators, to take in Bridget Auger’s powerful photo and text exhibit, “This is Not Me: Enduring Syria’s War.”

Sponsored by the Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging, the exhibition subject matter couldn’t be timelier. But its main strength lies is the deftness with which it tells the tale of two friends as they experience the ongoing conflict in Syria from inside and outside their homeland.

Auger, a Tisch Photography alumna (BFA, ’06) and the 2012 Tierney Fellowship award recipient from the Department of Photography & Imaging, both lovingly and realistically depicts her subjects as they register the range of emotions provoked by the events from 2011 to the present: excitement, hope, terror, disillusionment, isolation and despair. Coupled with the images are verbatim quotes, rounding out a compact exhibition that provides the viewer with both a complex and nuanced portrait not only of the situation in present day Syria, but of the hubris and disappointment that encompass revolution.

Auger is the eighth recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, established in 2005 by The Tierney Family Foundation exclusively for Tisch photography alumni. Fellows must have demonstrated excellence in the field of photography and have graduated within the past two to seven years. The primary goal of the Fellowship is to support promising aspiring artists and assist them in overcoming challenges that photographers face at the start of their careers.

The exhibition is on view through August 10 in the Gulf+Western Gallery at 721 Broadway (at Waverly Place). Gallery hours are 10 am to 7 pm weekdays and noon to 5 pm Saturdays. It is open to the public, and admission is free. Photo identification is required to enter the building. For further information, call (212) 998-1930, or visit http://www.photo.tisch.nyu.edu.

--Shonna Keogan

Gallatin's Duncombe Opens Up More's 'Utopia'tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c0192ac267c40970d2013-07-23T13:18:32-04:002013-07-23T13:19:01-04:00Sir Thomas More headed out of this world on July 6, 1535, but left behind one of western civilization’s most recognizable texts, Utopia, which describes a mythical society that More sharply contrasts with his 16th-century Europe. More, who was executed for running afoul of King Henry VIII, was a vociferous...NYU Public Affairs

Sir Thomas More headed out of this world on July 6, 1535, but left behind one of western civilization’s most recognizable texts, Utopia, which describes a mythical society that More sharply contrasts with his 16th-century Europe.

More, who was executed for running afoul of King Henry VIII, was a vociferous opponent of the Protestant Reformation as Lord Chancellor of England.

So how would More feel about the reformation of his own text?

Written in Latin, Utopia was subsequently translated into several other languages and subject to countless interpretations. But the Digital Age has brought about the ability to alter texts that were unimaginable to the Renaissance saint.

Gallatin Professor Stephen Duncombe—a co-founder of the Center for Artistic Activism, which aims to strengthen connections between social activism and artistic practice—explores these possibilities in “Open Utopia,” the first web-based, open source, and open access edition of More’s classic work. “Open Utopia” may be found at http://theopenutopia.org.

Duncombe has utilized the capabilities of the web to enable readers to engage in Utopia in new ways that open up the work, creating a platform for others to comment upon More’s text and write their own, building communities of critics and creators.

In collaboration with the Institute for the Future of the Book, “Open Utopia” features a “Social Book” edition that allows Utopia readers to annotate the text on-line and then share their thoughts with communities as small as a local book club or as large as the world. Through “Wikitopia,” a wiki platform for collective authorship, readers become writers: drafting individual and collective new visions of Utopian societies.

“Open Utopia” also includes an ever-expanding library of user-generated, Utopian-themed videos and images as well as audio files of Utopia read aloud.

With this endeavor, Duncombe demonstrates that More—unwittingly—was, indeed, a man for all mediums.

--James Devitt

In Cleveland, the Improbable becomes the Probabletag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c0191044985c1970c2013-07-18T12:38:34-04:002013-07-18T12:38:34-04:00"That things improbable oft will hap to men. For what is improbable does happen, and therefore it is probable that improbable things will happen." Or so wrote Aristotle more than two thousand years ago. While the Greek mathematician’s perspective undoubtedly applied to countless events in ancient Greece, he most certainly...NYU Public Affairs

"That things improbable oft will hap to men. For what is improbable does happen, and therefore it is probable that improbable things will happen."

Or so wrote Aristotle more than two thousand years ago.

While the Greek mathematician’s perspective undoubtedly applied to countless events in ancient Greece, he most certainly was not thinking about baseball, which wasn’t invented until the 19th century.

Yet, Aristotle’s words rang true this past weekend in Cleveland when fan Greg Van Niel grabbed four balls during a single game at the home-town Indians’ Progressive Field.

Van Niel’s accomplishment—or good fortune—immediately raised the question: what’s the probability of nabbing four foul balls at a major-league baseball game?

One estimate put it as a one in a trillion chance. But we decided to dig deeper using one of our own experts: Courant Professor Charles Newman, a probability expert who directed the institute from 2002 to 2006.

Image courtesy of Schyler at en.wikipedia

Here are the numbers he plugged into his calculations:

•There are nearly 50 foul balls in a major-league game

• The median major-league attendance for 2013 is approximately 30,000 fans

• There are approximately 2,400 major-league games per regular season

“Assuming all spectators are equally likely to grab each foul ball, which is a questionable assumption, someone would get four foul balls in a single game about once every 40,000 seasons,” explains Newman.

But, of course, not all fans are seated equally—those in the upper decks never come close to catching a ball headed for the seats while those sitting closer to the field may have multiple chances in a single game. Van Niel, a season-ticket holder, was sitting on the field level, down the third-base line—prime foul-ball territory.

So Newman adjusted his calculation to more realistically reflect stadium seating.

“If one replaces the bad assumption by a more reasonable one, like only about 3,000 of the spectators have any real chance of grabbing a foul,” Newman notes, “that changes the calculation by a factor of 1,000 and says it should happen about every 40 seasons—which means it may not have happened before and we'll have to wait a long time until it happens again.”

So is what happened in Cleveland last weekend highly improbable? From a mathematical standpoint, of course. But Aristotle was also a philosopher, as Newman’s Courant colleague Sylvain Cappell points out.

“Events which occur once in 40 years are, of course, individually improbable,” Cappell observes. “But, in some respects, that's really not so rare. So, comparably notable and rare events, even within the limited setting of professional baseball, are likely to, in fact, occur annually. Aristotle said it best: it's probable that in the course of life, improbable things will happen.”

Surely something for baseball fans, and especially Cleveland Indians’ fans to hold on to—their team last won the World Series in 1948, but is only 1.5 games out of a playoff spot at this year’s All-Star break.

--James Devitt

During Heat Wave, NYU Helps ConEd and NYC with Energy Curtailment tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a017d431d8ab7970c01901e4eb873970b2013-07-17T10:26:23-04:002013-07-17T10:26:23-04:00Like Shakespeare in the Park or the Washington Square Summer Music Fest, it’s become a summer ritual: NYC braces for a heat wave, and NYU students and employees start looking for ways to reduce their energy usage by turning off non-essential lights and mechanical systems across the University. If you...NYU Public Affairs

Like Shakespeare in the Park or the Washington Square Summer Music Fest, it’s become a summer ritual: NYC braces for a heat wave, and NYU students and employees start looking for ways to reduce their energy usage by turning off non-essential lights and mechanical systems across the University. If you have ever been through a black-out – and many of us in the NYU community have – you’ll understand why people willingly comply: as Con-Edison tells us, these efforts will help reduce the chance of brown-outs, black-outs, and damage from over-heating to the city's electrical system.

In ways large and small NYU is doing its part.

A NYU engineer
checks the main circuit breaker control panel in the CoGen plant. The red
lines at the top indicate ConEd’s electrical grid; the blue lines at the bottom
indicate NYU’s electrical grid. Looping lines of both colors represent
where the two grids meet, and they indicate that the two electrical power grids
are in synch.

For example, at NYU’s Carlyle Court – a student residence on Union Square -- a notice went out to residents via twitter noting the energy curtailment.

In my building, 25 west 4th Street in the Myer Complex, the building manager, Richard Malloy, sent around an email this morning reminding occupants to conserve energy where possible. “Please turn off your personal computers, lights, appliances, etc., when not in use,” Malloy’s note said. “Also turn off any unnecessary classroom and office lighting, and any areas where the A/C can be shut down or reduced, please let me know.” Many of my colleagues with windows worked with their lights off, and one of the building’s elevators was shut down. The 5th floor elevator lobby was gloomily dark.

While many of our buildings around Washington Square get their power from NYU's co-generation plant, -- itself one of NYU's most significant investments in reducing our dependence on the grid -- energy conservation is still very important. Our CoGen system is interconnected with Con-Edison’s electric grid. So by conserving power, NYU is able to contribute more of it to the grid, or – if demand gets very high -- draw less power from the grid during peak periods of electrical demand.

The NYU Office of Sustainability notes that during these curtailment periods, NYU sheds approximately 9,000 kWh per day. According to the U.S. EIA, that is enough electricity to power the average U.S. household for one year. With everyone’s awareness, cooperation, and conservation, NYU is doing its part to help support NYC by being responsible electric consumers during the summer heat waves.